


Slivers of Comprehension

by Asuka



Category: Kamen Rider W | Masked Rider Double
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-01-02
Updated: 2013-01-02
Packaged: 2017-10-28 18:37:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/310939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asuka/pseuds/Asuka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If all the knowledge in the world is in his head, what they provide him with must be something else entirely.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> When I started rewatching Double, I ended up writing these little pieces after every episode. It's sort of turning into a Philip character study maybe...
> 
> I intend to have one chapter for every episode, possibly including the movies as well.

Narumi Akiko. Nothing of interest.

A paltry 1180 relevant search results, most brief mentions of the girl as a classmate or an acquaintance. Her life was summed up in four large books. It took half an hour to get through them, to read through lists of homework assignments and crushes and determine that there was, in fact, nothing to be gained from learning about her. Nothing about Narumi Akiko would help him understand Narumi Sokichi’s actions on that night, and so he dutifully finished reading through the remainder of her information and then moved on.

He wasn’t terribly surprised when she showed up one day. One of the books had said that she had some attachment to the city and was looking for a new job, which suggested that she might well turn up searching for one. She was everything the library said she’d be – loud, stubborn, and not too bright.

But there was something different about her, not something that had been in any of the books. It was curious, talking to someone who wasn’t Shoutarou about something that wasn’t a case or Begins Night. There was no logical explanation for it, but the tone of her voice, the up and downs of her Osakan accent, the way she challenged him to look up takoyaki, rather than simply demanding it… it stirred something within him that he would’ve looked up had he not been busy learning about the pros and cons of traditional versus modern frying implements.

His first impression still held, but he revised it slightly.

Nothing of interest.

Yet.


	2. Chapter 2

Why had Shoutarou hit him? It didn’t make sense. He had only said what was true and what both of them knew was right. It didn’t make sense, that it would upset him so much that he’d lose concentration and expend his energy on getting angry when he could very well be killed by the T-Rex Dopant. Moreover, it was just stupid to storm out without a single Gaia Memory to protect himself, no matter how much he didn’t want to rely on Philip’s power.

He had learned very early on that Hidari Shoutarou was a man who not only ignored logic, but flagrantly defied it at every opportunity. He had pored over his data 88 times trying to understand what it was that made him act that way, but could never quite manage to grasp it. He kept coming back to the sentence “Hidari is a wild card,” a statement uttered by one of his junior high teachers. The context was unimportant, just another case of Shoutarou breaking the rules, but there was something about the statement that stuck. Suzuki Motohiro, 51, from Aichi Prefecture, may have been an average schoolteacher with no achievements or distinguishing features (and Philip’s research had shown that that was, indeed, the case), but he had managed to summarize Shoutarou perfectly in an offhand remark.

Shoutarou was capable of reacting in any way to anything, of being completely reckless and coming up with the most unnecessarily complicated ways to do basic things. Although most of his actions could be predicted with the right amount of information, there was always a moment of uncertainty.

That uncertainty had a lot to do with why Philip stuck around, even though he could have left at any time, even though it was obvious Shoutarou didn’t like him, even though they were only partners out of convenience and circumstance and Shoutarou’s promise to Narumi Sokichi. If there was one thing Philip couldn’t stand, it was not knowing something.

That was an ongoing problem, though, one that he’d been working on for a year without any sign of a breakthrough. At the moment, what was more important was making sure that Shoutarou didn’t get himself eaten. Philip grabbed Shoutarou’s Memories and got into the HardBoilder.

After all, once he got there, he could always just ask him.  
 


	3. Chapter 3

He couldn’t remember where he had first heard the name of Sonozaki Wakana, or why. Perhaps he had been researching the history of radio and come across a list of popular radio programs, or maybe he’d been in the office experimenting with chemicals to see the reactions he’d read about firsthand while Shoutarou was listening to it. It wasn’t important.

What was important was that she was fascinating. No matter how many times he read about her career, he couldn’t get enough. He tuned in to her program weekly and then read the transcript immediately afterwards, again and again until he’d memorized every word and could play it back in his head in her sweet voice. Even though he knew everything about her, he wanted to know more.

Shoutarou thought it was just another obsession that would run its course, but Philip knew better. Wakana was different from trivial things like batteries and Edo period woodblock prints. When he heard her voice, it was as if something he had been missing for a long time had been returned to him.

And until he figured out what that missing part was, he needed her to make himself feel whole.


	4. Chapter 4

It wasn’t something he could tell Shoutarou, but that embarrassing line about being his treasured partner had really gotten to him. He’d always had the feeling that Shoutarou saw him only as an obligation and a tool, which was just fine, since he’d always just thought of him as a reckless fool that just so happened to provide him room and board.  
But “partner”… that was different. 

Partners meant mutual respect, and equality. It meant being able to rely on each other, and covering for each other’s weaknesses, like Shoutarou had done for him when he had been about to lose the roulette game. It meant attachment, even though he’d thought he was alone. 

It meant someone cared.

Maybe having a partner wasn’t the same as having a family, but it was enough that he could push aside that sense of loss and abandonment just long enough to repay Shoutarou for earlier. He thought that as long as Shoutarou didn’t change his mind, it would probably be enough the next time someone brought it up too, and the next, until it didn’t hurt anymore. Even if Shoutarou was about the furthest thing from family, knowing that he mattered to him made it seem like he was, if only a little.

It wasn’t something he could tell Shoutarou, but with the connection they shared thanks to the Double Driver, he didn’t need to.

 

…He was glad that he shared no such connection with Akiko, or she’d know how much the slipper smack had helped too, and then she’d never stop.


End file.
